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Like in the past, this year too, the state kannada cinema awards weren’t free from controversies. At a press conference to announce the awards here on Friday, a few journalists objected to the selection of K S R Das for the Puttanna Kanagal Award. They argued that Das had done many remake films and films depicting violence and hence didn’t deserve to win the award named after the great kannada direcotr Puttanna Kanagal, who is known for his originality.

Awards committee selection chairman veteran director Bhargava said that they had considered four persons — Das, Girish Karnad, D Rajendra Babu and P H Vishwanath — for the award and had selected Das. Referring to Karnad, he said: “Karnad is the recipient of awards like Jnanpith and Padma Bhushan. So, we thought this award was small,’’ Bhargava said. When the media took exception to this and said it was an insult to the director, Kannada and culture secretary Ramesh Zalki and information director Muddu Mohan intervened and requested the journalists not to make a controversy. The trio discussed amongst themselves and then announced that they were giving it to Karnad.

Das (74) is known in Kannada and Telugu film industries. Some of his movies in Kannada are Kaidi, Tirugubaana, Sahodarara Savaal, Nanna Prathigne, Bangarada Gudi and Ondagi Baalu.

Sudeep (Mussanje Maathu) and Ajay Rao (Taj Mahal) were in the race for the best actor’s award, while Ramya (Mussanje Maathu) and Supritha (Ambari) were in the race for the best actress award. Asked whether Ramya was not considered for the award as she did not dub her voice, Bhargava said: “That was not the issue at all. If it was so, why would the government institute a separate award for voice dubbing?’’

In the beginning, it was about two members — Banandur Kempaiah, an employee of DD and director D Rajendra Babu — dropping off from the 9-member panel. “We watched the movies for 8-9 hours a day. Being an employee of DD, he said he couldn’t spare that much time. The government should have given it a thought before nominating him,’’ Bhargava said.